Indholdsfortegnelse for April 2017 i Architectural Digest

“Always, always in life, the thing is the future.” —Mrs. Henry Parish II, a.k.a. “Sister Parish” The April issue of Architectural Digest has long been devoted to the theme of Designers’ Own Homes—a welcome chance for readers to glimpse what the pros do for themselves when there are no clients to consider. This month, we pay visits to, among others, the boldly unconventional Ashley Hicks, son of hugely influential English designer David Hicks, and to the granddaughter and great-granddaughter of the legendary decorator Sister Parish, who keep her signature style alive in their cozy family house. The issue’s theme, along with so many other concepts, originated with the great editor Paige Rense, who refined and ruled this publication for an impressive four decades, starting in the 1970s. Architectural Digest, known…

THE BEST IN SHOPPING, DESIGN, AND STYLE DISCOVERIES at home with I needed that place where I could drink endless cups of tea,” says model and musician Karen Elson of the newest addition to her Nashville home—an elegant boudoir. Born from her love for an irreverent wallpaper by illustrator Costanza Theodoli-Braschi (“it wasn’t exactly appropriate for the sitting room,” she says with a laugh), Elson’s latest decorating project turned an underutilized home office into a spot of solitude. “Now it’s the most glamorous room in the house,” she says of the space, realized with the help of designer friends Louisa Pierce and Emily Ward of Pierce & Ward. The dressing room, along with her bedroom and bath, serves as Elson’s sanctuary. “Silence is important for my creative process,” she explains…

Ten Tiffany & Co. pitchers are sitting in artist Shara Hughes’s Brooklyn studio. “I can’t believe I get to paint these and send them back to the store,” says Hughes, who will brush the vessels with colorful strokes reminiscent of her abstract landscapes. But works of art have long been welcomed on the shelves at Tiffany, which has a rich history of tapping creative talents, from Paloma Picasso to Elsa Peretti. This year the company takes its commitment a step further, signing on as sponsor of the next three Whitney Biennials. Five artists featured in the 2017 show were asked to put their spin on a classic Tiffany object. The limited-edition designs—Hughes’s pitchers, a business-card case by Ajay Kurian, a pendant by Carrie Moyer, a silver vessel by Harold Mendez,…

Though they’re easy to overlook and oddly uncelebrated beyond the poems of John Betjeman, nonconformist chapels are among the quieter delights of the English countryside. Restrained in style and modest in size, these buildings capture the alternatives to establishment Christianity that thrived in 18th- and 19th-century Britain. Today, thanks to declining congregations, many such mute memorials stand empty or have been converted for secular use. With high ceilings and ample light, they work particularly well as artists’ studios, perhaps because artists tend to be nonconformists themselves. Silversmith Hal Messel inhabits one such chapel, in a small market town in the heart of the Cotswolds, that region of bare uplands and bosky valleys so beloved of the Arts and Crafts movement and the royal family. Built in 1703, his chapel was…

dry off in style Patterned towels change the look of a bath in an instant, so stock up on designs from simple to sply. “D. Porthault’s Blue Carnations just makes me happy,” says Celerie Kemble. “Anything that keeps me b-eyed and bushy-tailed in the morning earns its keep.”…

“I slightly wanted to do things that my father would have loathed in theory yet might have had a sneaking liking for if he’d seen them.” “My papa treasured all the things my mum inherited from her family, but I love to make things myself.”…

As Vladimir Kagan’s clients began buying Abstract Expressionist paintings in the 1950s, the Manhattan furniture designer saw a gap in the market: sofas for viewing art. He envisioned free-floating seats that would avoid the linear norm. “We don’t all have to sit like birds on a telephone wire,” he once quipped. Thanks to material innovations such as rubber strapping and foam, Kagan came up with undulating solutions. An instant favorite with New York’s glitterati was the stunning Serpentine sofa, which provided a 360-degree viewpoint and casters that made it easy to move. “It’s perfect set in the middle of an all-glass apartment or in a gallery for looking at paintings,” says interior designer Tony Ingrao, who recently bought at auction a small Serpentine model that had belonged to actress Grace…

1. BAKER GEORGE III ORIENTAL LACQUER CABINET IN BESPOKE BLUE. 40.75" W. X 17.75" D. X 68" H.; $45,000. BAKERFURNITURE.COM 800-592-2537 2. MADELINE WEINRIB CAMILLA RUG IN PINK AND RED. 9' L. X 6' W.; $3,000. MADELINEWEINRIB.COM 646-602-3780 3. CHRISTOPHER GUY SUMMER HARVEST MIRROR. 57" L. X 46" W.; $22,725. CHRISTOPHERGUY.COM 800-476-9505 4. LALIQUE TWO ANEMONES CRYSTAL PERFUME BOTTLE. 6" H. X 4" DIA.; $1,495. LALIQUE.COM 212-355-6550 5. TEMPLE ST. CLAIR 18K-GOLD RHINO RING IN AQUAMARINE, EMERALD, AND BLUE SAPPHIRE, SOLD WITH BOX IN MARBLE WITH AVENTURINE, MALACHITE, LAPIS LAZULI, AND JASPER; $75,000. TEMPLESTCLAIR.COM 212_219_8664 6. NATHAN ANTHONY FURNITURE SABINE SOFA BY TINA NICOLE. 101" W. X 38" D. X 30" H.; $10,000. NAFURNITURE.COM, 323-584-1315 7. JOY DE ROHAN CHABOT BRINDILLE HAND PAINTED WATER GLASS IN BLUE. 5" H.; $98.…

WHERE TO GO, WHO TO KNOW, WHAT TO SEE Some seasons ago—like some Black Knight out of nowhere—Robert Balkany, a young and rich land developer, came to Deauville . . . and challenged Elie de Rothschild for primacy among the lords in that resort even whose mayor . . . has a title.” When Women’s Wear Daily ran this gossipy item in 1967, the dashing Romanian-born commoner—his faux-noble surname, actually Zellinger de Balkany, was his father’s invention—was stepping out with Italy’s Princess Maria Gabriella. The couple would marry, propagate, and separate, but when they divorced in 1990 Balkany lived on in princely splendor, thanks to a fortune built on shopping malls, until he died, in 2015. From March 22 to 23, Christie’s London will auction furnishings and art from Balkany’s…

head-to-toe terrazzo Rodman Primack, the creative engine behind Design Miami, went full throttle at his own Manhattan home, lining two baths entirely in terrazzo. “It’s naturally waterproof, wears well, and can be easily patched if it cracks,” he notes of the material, a staple of 18th-century Venetian architecture. He opted for an innovative marble-resin blend (Marmoreal by Max Lamb for Dzek) that could be used on the sink and tub. Says Primack of the immersive effect, “It’s like walking into a panettone.” marble mania “I love the drama of book-matched marble,” says architect Annabelle Selldorf, referring to the technique of placing slabs that have been cut from the same block side by side, so that their patterns mirror each other. “We look for really rich veining, from fairly linear striations…

“There are no sounds of cars or mopeds—all that noisy commotion,” says Zervudachi. “It’s just so restful. You completely disconnect.” about30 years ago, Tino Zervudachi alighted on Hydra, a nearly 13-mile-long Aegean island of rocky hillsides, where winding streets and crooked stone steps snake among traditional whitewashed houses roofed in terra-cotta tiles. Separated from the mainland by a thin channel called the Kolpos Idras, the island can be reached in 90 minutes on a hydrofoil from Athens. But for Zervudachi, the place felt a world away. Back home in London, the young designer was finding his stride working with the legendary David Mlinaric (with whom he’d eventually partner to form the estimable firm of Mlinaric, Henry and Zervudachi, which Zervudachi took over after Mlinaric’s retirement, in 2005), and the island…

“My mother always served Cheez-Its with martinis in tiny square glasses the size of votives,” says Apple Parish Bartlett.…

Instagram evidence shows that guests at Claridge’s hotel in London are more apt than not to snap a picture of their plump bed pillow before resting their head on it. Why? The Frette linens come monogrammed with each visitor’s initials. The act of appreciating an old-world touch via new-age technology isn’t lost on Frette. Founded in 1860, the Italian company recently introduced a bespoke service, and while its storied archives include crests of Borromeos and Borgheses, no august pedigree is required these days. The service, which extends to bedding, table linens, and towels, offers a multitude of fabric and thread colors, lace borders, monograms, and motifs (more than one yacht has boats embroidered on its napery). In short, the sky is the limit: Want hand-painted fabric? Frette just might oblige.…

Since we began seven years ago, people have been telling me, ‘I would love this clutch as a box for a table or shelf,’ so at some point I thought, Okay, I’ll make a box,” explains Edie Parker founder and designer Brett Heyman. She tested the waters with a few home accessories last summer, but when she set up an Edie Parker shop on Manhattan’s Madison Avenue this February, she found herself thinking bigger. “We’re using our materials to make furniture that I think is spectacular,” she says. This month, Heyman introduces one-off trays and tables, exclusively at 1stdibs, which were similarly organically inspired. “There’s this amazing flea market in Connecticut called the Elephant’s Trunk. I started going with [fashion designer] Wes Gordon, and he kept pointing out these trays…

Playing in the sand is one of those childhood experiences that resonate throughout one’s life, viscerally evoking youthful innocence. Jennifer Guidi knows all about it: The Los Angeles–based artist was born in Redondo Beach and grew up moving between Southern California coastal communities and the desert oases of the Coachella Valley. And while Guidi has incorporated sand into her practice for years, her engagement with the material has evolved. In her latest series of paintings, she explores not only its physical properties (tactility, malleability, luminosity) but also its strange power to induce spiritual reverie. Ranging from medium to large format, the works themselves are multilayered fields of sand, pigment, and acrylic polymers that she applies in varying combinations and depths before gouging the compositions with wood dowels of her own…

The smaller the space, the bigger the opportunity—at least when it’s a powder room by Katie Ridder. “Powder rooms don’t have to relate to any other space,” the interior designer explains, which means that flights of fancy are encouraged. And because these guest baths often are minuscule, one can embrace extravagances that a budget wouldn’t allow for in a larger expanse. Thus, Ridder has smartened powder-room walls coast to coast in eye-popping wallpapers, shimmering verre églomisé, and even pretty, handmade porcelain flowers. “People are really open to a statement room because it isn’t a space you’re exposed to all the time,” says Ridder, who also deploys sculptural mirrors to thrilling effect. “So why not make it something surprising?” With just that spirit in mind, we’ve rounded up our favorite wallpapers…

“Chandeliers send light downward and sideways— perfect over the tub in a grand bath,” says designer William T. Georgis. “Flush mounts are best for low ceilings. To create a soft, warm glow, use a 300- watt halogen bulb.” “Overhead light creates shadows. So sconces are most flattering when you’re looking at your face.”…

It seems a bit crazy in retrospect, but before Joanna and I were married, I suggested we buy this property together and build on it someday. She thought it rash and was not initially keen on the idea, but I told her not to worry, that even if our relationship didn’t work out, it would be a sensible real-estate investment. I’m pleased to say that, in the end, both have proven successful. After a 40-year career as an architect, designing houses for many clients, I was finally confronted with designing one for myself and my family—surprisingly, something I had avoided all this time. Joanna and I both love Mediterranean architecture, our common ground, so the house I devised is a mixture of northern Italian and southern French influences, a farmhouse…

(T) means the item is available only to the trade. GREEK REVIVAL PAGES 118-127: Interiors by Tino Zervudachi & Associés; mhzlondon.com. Landscape design by Louis Benech; louisbenech.com. PAGES 124_ 25: Throw pillows covered in Timor acrylic by Holland & Sherry (T); hollandandsherry.com. Seat cushions of Quercia acrylic by Mariaflora (T); mariaflora.com. PAGE 126: In master bedroom, curtains of Castellino twill barre linen, in off-white/black, by C&C Milano (T); cec-milano.com. Custom-made wood slatted bed by Tino Zervudachi; mhzlondon.com. Ceramic suspended lamp from Halo Architectural Lighting; halo.gr. In bath, Starlet Oval Silhouette tub by Bette; bette.de; with Axor Citterio fittings by Hansgrohe; hansgrohe-usa.com. Enville towel warmer by the Sterlingham Co. Ltd.; sterlingham.co.uk. Gallina side table from Treca Interiors Paris; treca-interiors-paris.com. Cornette pendant light by Tsé & Tsé & Associées; tse-tse.com. Wall sconce…

As a doctoral student in 1980s Paris, I spent day after day beneath the nine umbrella domes of the Bibliothèque Nationale’s mid-19th-century reading room. Its architect, Henri Labrouste, was a protagonist of my thesis, so dreaming toward the ceiling— pierced by oculi and supported by slim columns—still counted as study. I’ve since returned innumerable times, even hosting a dinner for international scholars after the space closed for repairs in 2010 and making it the focus of MoMA’s 2013 Labrouste exhibition. But nothing prepared me to see the room this January, on the eve of its inauguration as the library of the Institut National d’Histoire de l’Art. The ceiling has been cleaned of grime so that the domes’ brilliant egg-white enamel now reflects shadowless light onto open books far below. Meanwhile,…